


when darkness is upon your door

by random_chick



Series: what small measure [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-11
Updated: 2014-01-11
Packaged: 2018-01-08 07:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1129903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/random_chick/pseuds/random_chick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Loki has regained his memories and his abilities; his lover July is still working at the coffee shop, though not for long. When July is pulled in for questioning by SHIELD, Loki explodes. His attempt to rescue her leaves lines clearly drawn and both of them quite obviously on the same side of the line.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It’d been weeks since July’s life had changed; every day brought some fresh new surprise. Like the day she’d realized that her brother would never speak to her again. (Not that she minded that one. If she had to make the choice again, she would choose Loki every time.)

Like the day she’d realized that Loki was more powerful than she’d known. (That one had been courtesy of Loki simply vanishing from her apartment in the blink of an eye only to return hours later, acting supremely casual as though nothing had happened. Only the most powerful of men, of magicians, could pull that off.)

Like the day she’d realized that Loki cared for three things: power, revenge, and her. (She still wasn’t sure which of those drives was the strongest, but she certainly wasn’t going to blame him for wanting either of the first two -- even if she didn’t completely know why he wanted revenge. Oh sure, she knew the story he’d told, but who _ever_ knew Loki’s deeper motivations?)

She stood in the middle of her apartment, scrutinizing the scant few boxes left to unpack -- all that remained of Loki’s former life, packed up in four small boxes. She didn’t know what she was going to do with most of it, but she’d packed all his things up and brought them home with her. Loki had been amused at that, had just shaken his head and told her to do what she wanted with them.

So she was keeping them. For now, at least. His things were, if nothing else, reminders of the way they’d met. They still had a purpose to serve. And also if nothing else, July had a feeling Loki would understand keeping something around while it still had a purpose.

“I find it utterly amazing that it’s been three weeks and you _still_ have moving boxes scattered around your living room like discarded dice.”

“You’re worse than Miles, you know that?” July called over her shoulder. “At least _he_ had a key. You’re breaking and entering.”

“No, love,” Loki said, approaching July from behind. “I’m not breaking and entering. Just… entering.” The last word was said on a light huff of air as his lips brushed against her ear.

July shivered and turned. “You know, as much as I liked the sight of you in slacks and a dress shirt… you are infinitely hotter in this,” she said, patting his chest. “Green and black suits you much better.”

“You should see me in a suit.” Loki cracked a small smile.

“Mm, I think I’d like that.” July leaned up to brush a kiss along his jawline. “I’ve missed you.”

“It’s only been three days,” he pointed out, even as he wrapped an arm around her, putting a hand to the small of her back and pressing her against him.

“I went from seeing you almost every single day for six months to barely seeing you for three weeks,” July countered. She kissed him to stifle the angry protest she knew was coming. “Now, I’m not arguing. You have your reasons, I know. And I do understand. All I’m saying is, going from one to the other has been a bit of an adjustment.”

Somewhat mollified by her logic, Loki brought his other hand up to cup her cheek. “I know, Jules,” he murmured. “I know.”

“I wish I could see you more often,” July said, wrapping an arm around his neck and tugging his head down so she could kiss him more soundly.

“I have to keep on the move,” he mumbled into the kiss. “Stay hidden. The Allfather and my false brother have already likely been informed that I’ve gone missing, if Heimdall hasn’t been able to see my presence anyway. I’ve done my best to cloak myself, but there’s no telling if my magic has failed or not.”

“I hope it hasn’t,” July said, nipping at his lower lip. “They’d come for you and I’d lose you.”

“No, you wouldn’t,” Loki said fervently. “I wouldn’t allow it.” He gave her a breathless smirk. “If nothing else, I’d make them bring you to Asgard. They’d do just about anything if they thought it would help keep me in line.”

“But if that happens, you’ll be in prison,” July said. “I wouldn’t be able to stand that.”

“We won’t let it happen,” Loki promised. “But if it came to that… well, I’m reasonably certain Sif might like you. If not for the part where you’re my lover. I imagine the esteemed Lady Sif would look down on you for that.”

“Then she can go fuck herself,” July said. “I don’t need anybody who looks down on me for being with you. If I wanted that, I would try to repair things with my brother.”

Loki snorted. “Have you heard anything from him lately?”

“Not a thing,” July replied. “And I’m really not so sure that’s a bad thing.”

“Your loyalty is a fearsome thing,” Loki said, smiling fondly. “I know others who could take lessons from you.”

July kissed Loki again, clenching her other hand in the fabric of his jacket. “I don’t want to lose you,” she mumbled. “The thought of it terrifies me.”

“You will never lose me, July,” he promised, stifling a moan. “This I promise.”

“I damn well better not,” July said, pushing him back towards the couch.

Loki just chuckled lowly and let himself be moved along. For all he liked control, he found it intensely satisfying when July managed to wrest it from him. Though, truthfully, all she had to do was look at him in a certain way and he was willing to let her have control -- for the moment, anyway.

Their coupling was swift and less than ideal -- neither of them was even fully undressed -- but they had learned well to make due with the time they had. But the intensity was still present, even with the less than ideal circumstances; July had a new soreness on one hip thanks to the bruising pressure of Loki’s hand against her skin as he came.

July settled against him, resting her head against his shoulder. They didn’t have long, but they had time enough for a rare sweet moment and woe betide anybody who decided to interrupt them.

“You are precious beyond belief,” Loki murmured. “I shudder to imagine my life without you in it.”

July warmed at that. It was rare that Loki got as sentimental as all that -- he tended to consider sentimentality a failing. So when he had a moment of softness, she wasn’t going to argue.

Besides, it wouldn’t get her anywhere to argue. And she liked getting places with him. Often places of the “good thing she didn’t have a roommate to traumatize” variety.

“I love it when you say things like that,” she said, pressing a kiss to his neck. “And the fact that you don’t say them often makes them mean all the more.”

“My beautiful one,” Loki murmured. “You would wait forever for me if you had to.”

“Though God I hope I never have to.”

Loki didn’t even fault her for that.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha still swung by the coffee shop on an almost daily basis, never mind that Loki had been conspicuously absent the last three weeks. She couldn’t help it -- she had a more than sneaking feeling that July knew more than she let on. Though she had to give the woman credit, she was a _very_ good actress, playing the part of an abandoned lover just about to perfection. Only someone with Natasha’s particular skillset could really pick the act apart.

“Hey,” Natasha greeted as she approached the counter.

“Hey yourself, Nat,” July replied with an easy-going smile. “How goes it?”

“I’ve got some big important meeting later today,” Natasha said with a groan. “Not one I want to go to, either.” Especially not since she was going to have to go into it and pitch the idea of bringing July in to SHIELD and questioning her about Loki’s true whereabouts.

“It always sucks when you have to go someplace you don’t want to go,” July said. “Like me, I didn’t want to come in to work this morning.”

“Of course you didn’t,” Natasha said. “It’s been three weeks since Loki up and left.”

“Yeah.” July nodded. “It still hurts, y’know? He screwed me once and then left me.” She shrugged. “His loss, though.”

“Exactly,” Natasha said, taking a moment now to glance up at the menu board, even though she always got the exact same thing every single time -- that was part of _her_ act. She placed her order and waited until July was busy before she asked, “So you haven’t heard from Loki at all?”

“Not once,” July replied, her attention focused on the step at hand.

“That’s strange,” Natasha said. “I mean, you two were so close and then he just up and leaves? No note, no nothing?” Natasha was subtle; Nat was not.

“Guess it just took me some time to see his true colors,” July said, biting her lip. “Apparently I really, really suck at judging people.” She handed Natasha her drink. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get all maudlin on you there.”

“It’s all right,” Natasha assured her. “We all have bad moments.”

“I miss him,” July said, after glancing around to check on the scant few patrons in the building. “He made working around here a whole lot more entertaining.”

Natasha studied July intently. “You were in love with him, weren’t you?” She wasn’t sure what answer she was hoping for.

“Yeah,” July said, looking away. “I was. Still am.”

Natasha sighed inwardly.

“I’m sorry,” was all she could manage.

 

Natasha did indeed have absolutely no desire to go into the meeting with Fury and whoever else was in on it. Because she would absolutely have to recommend bringing July in, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.

Fury looked at Natasha a moment before looking around the room. “Are we ready to begin?”

“Yeah,” Clint said from his position next to Natasha. “Though I don’t know what we’re being all official for. It really amounts to the fact that Loki’s in the wind and we need to find him.”

“Complicating this is the fact that we have no idea whether Loki has regained his memories and his powers or if he’s on the run as normal human variety Loki,” Natasha contributed. “And July has been no help. She’s acting like Loki just up and left her, which is probably the story they’re both feeding everyone. I went by his apartment the other night, middle of the night, and his things are gone.

“So she knows where he is,” Fury said. “We need to speak with her.”

Natasha sighed. “Then I think we should bring her in,” she said. “If we question her here we can get the actual answers, not just the answers they’ve planned together -- because I’d bet anything that Loki’s told her what to say.”

“Whether he has his memories back or not, he’s going to be the one in control,” Clint said. “So he probably _has_ told her what to say. Except the only thing I’m wondering is, if he doesn’t have his memories back and he’s taken off, what does she think he’s running for or from?”

“We’ll find out,” Fury said. “I’m sending a team to bring her in shortly.”

 

July was just about ready to clock out for the day when her afternoon officially went to hell. Her first clue should have been the vehicles that pulled up outside, but it wasn’t. Her second clue should have been the people in suits that came into the shop, but it wasn’t.

“July Harrison?” asked one of the men.

“Yes,” July said warily. “Can I help you?”

“My name’s Agent Coulson. I’m with SHIELD.”

July just gave him a look.

“Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division.” Coulson quirked a smile. “It’s a bit of a mouthful, yes. And as for how you can help us… you can come with us.”

July knew what they wanted almost instantly but forced herself to stay cool and calm. “I don’t think so, Agent Coulson. Not unless you tell me what you want with me.”

“We have some questions to ask you about an acquaintance of yours.” Coulson gave her a level gaze.

“Who?” She knew, though. Who else could it be?

“Loki Lawson, a former co-worker of yours.”

“I don’t know what I can tell you about him,” July said with a shrug. “He up and left three weeks ago and I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”

“Yes, but we still have questions.” Coulson smiled blandly. “Asking them here would not go over well with anyone, least of all your bosses.”

July sighed. Fighting them on this would do her no good and would probably just get her arrested or something. And really, getting arrested by a Men In Black wannabe? So not on her agenda for the day. “Fine,” she said. “My shift’s over now, anyway. Let me go clock out and grab my jacket.”

“We’ll be waiting.”

“Of course you will,” she muttered as she headed for the back.

July clocked out, grabbed her jacket, and spent a minute or two in back just standing there. She had absolutely no idea what she was going to tell Agent Coulson or whoever else might interrogate her. And she had no delusions -- this was going to be an interrogation.


	3. Chapter 3

Upon their arrival at SHIELD headquarters, July was put in a conference room of all places. She sat on one side of the table and raked her fingers through her hair as she tried to figure out what exactly she was going to say to any question they might ask.

Coulson entered the room and took up a seat opposite her. “Tell me something,” he said. “Why did Loki leave town?”

“Hell if I know,” July said with a shrug. “He didn’t have much to stay for, I know that much.”

Coulson studied her thoughtfully. “What do you know about him?”

“He’s in his early thirties,” July said. “Worked at the coffee shop for six months, was probably an undiagnosed manic-depressive, given the way his personality shifted so radically sometimes. Kept to himself, didn’t have any friends except for me.”

“It was all a lie,” Coulson said bluntly, but with a sympathetic glint in his eyes. “His entire story was a fabrication.”

“So what’s the truth, then?” July knew, of course; Loki had told her most of it and had confirmed the rest when she’d puzzled it out aloud, but she wasn’t about to tell Coulson that.

“The truth is infinitely more complicated,” Coulson said as vaguely as he could manage.

“I’m a smart girl, Agent Coulson,” July said with a snarky grin. “I can probably figure it out.”

“I’m sure you’re intelligent,” Coulson said. “But I’m not authorized to tell you the truth.”

“Then stop dicking me around and get me someone who _is_ authorized,” July said. “My patience is wearing thin already.”

Coulson’s gaze hardened and he stood. “I’ll be back shortly.”

July leaned back in her chair and propped her feet up on the table. “Agent Coulson?”

He turned back towards her. “Yes?”

“How’s your chest wound? Still hurts when the weather’s bad, I would imagine.”

Coulson paled and he knew it. He recovered as best he could, turned, and left.

 

Fury sat at his desk looking through a file when Coulson came in without even knocking. “Something wrong, Agent Coulson?”

“She _knows_ ,” Coulson said.

“She knows what?” Fury arched an eyebrow.

“Everything.” Coulson took a deep breath. “And sir? I think it’s safe to assume that Loki has his memories back, because the Harrison woman just said something to me that she would have no way of knowing otherwise.”

“And what’s that?”

“She asked me how my chest wound is doing.”

“... I see.” Fury didn’t like what that meant, didn’t like it at all. “And the only way she could know that would be if Loki himself told her.”

“And that means the two of them are closer than we realized,” Coulson said. “Because while Loki would brag about what he did to the city, I doubt his stabbing me would be something he’d share in the course of that bragging.”

Fury nodded slightly in agreement before rising from his seat. “It would seem as though I need to speak with her.” Maybe sending him in would convince her that she needed to tell them whatever she could about Loki, would convince her of the importance of the matter.

If not, then things would get a whole lot more difficult.

 

Loki appeared in July’s living room, fully expecting to find her there. Instead, he found nothing. It wouldn’t have bothered him, save for the fact that he’d known she would be home after work. He had another few moments to spend with her, and to find her not at home made him unhappy.

And it worried him more than a little -- she would have left some kind of a note for him to let him know she’d be gone, some kind of a sign if nothing else. But her apron wasn’t draped over the back of a chair like it usually was, her favorite pair of sneakers was still under the coffee table, and the cloth purse she always took with her when she wasn’t at work was still dropped on the couch.

So wherever she was, she’d gone there directly after work. He supposed he could go looking for her, but he wasn’t that worried. Not yet, anyway. If she didn’t come home soon, then he’d go looking. It wouldn’t do to be seen in town again when he’d up and left three weeks earlier without so much as a word. Mostly just because he didn’t want to upset the story he and July had agreed to run with. Not unless he absolutely had to, anyway.

So instead he set to pacing the living room and waiting.

He didn’t do waiting well, never had and never would. But for July, he would endure it. For a little while, at least, until he grew too impatient and could no longer fight the urge to go looking for her. So, given his personality, it could be anywhere from two hours to fifteen minutes, an hour if he were sufficiently distracted.

In short, not long at all.

 

July looked up when someone else came into the conference room. “You’re more impressive than the last guy,” she said, still not terribly impressed.

“Miss Harrison, I’ve been authorized to tell you information not entirely available to the general public,” Fury said, taking up the seat across from July.

“About Loki, I take it.”

“Yes.” Fury gave a slight nod.

“Whatever it is, I probably already know it.” They’d covered his past, the lies he’d been told, who his family was.

“Loki is the man responsible for the destruction in the city, as I’m sure Agent Coulson already told you. What he didn’t tell you is that Loki is not human. He’s -- “

“Raised Asgardian, actually Jotun. Abandoned by Laufey, stolen and raised by Odin as the younger brother of Thor,” July recited in a bored tone. “Stop me if I’m getting it wrong.”

“No, continue,” Fury said dryly.

“After his fall from the bridge, he became allies with Thanos and his special brand of crazy, stealing the cube and leading the Chitauri in battle.” July smirked.

Fury didn’t like that she knew as much of the story as she did. “And his time on Earth -- “

“Called Midgard by his people, just as a tangent. But yeah, his time on Earth was his punishment. Stripped of his memories and his powers and cast down into a meaningless existence.” July smirked again. “Though for the record, Odin and his A-plus fake parenting went soft on Loki. He didn’t strip him of his memories _or_ his powers, just buried them _incredibly_ deep in Loki’s mind. To the degree that it took six months for the true Loki to crawl himself up out of the fakery he’d been put into.”

“You don’t sound upset,” Fury observed. “You were interested in him, and now that you know the truth, you don’t seem bothered.”

“I’m not,” July said with a shrug. “Because he told me all of this himself.”

Fury just looked at her. “We need you to tell us where he might be.”

“Can’t.” She shrugged again. “He doesn’t tell me where he goes, just comes by every few days. I don’t question him. I worry for him, but I don’t question him. He’ll tell me what I need to know.”

The frightening thing was, in Fury’s estimation, that Loki didn’t seem to be hiding much from the young woman. If he was being this open with her, this honest… she had to mean something to him. Either that or Loki was planning to kill her, and Fury didn’t think that was likely because Loki wasn’t terribly long on the patience. If he’d been planning to kill July, it would already be done.

“We still need to know everything you know,” Fury said. “Anything at all, no matter how small, might be the key to finding Loki.”

“Why try to find him?” July asked. “Why not leave that to Thor and the Asgardians? Why do you have such an interest in this?”

“Because we were keeping an eye on him,” Fury said candidly -- or as candid as he generally got.

“But he wasn’t your responsibility.” July studied Fury thoughtfully. “Which means you didn’t trust Odin. You were worried about this exact thing happening, about Loki getting his memory and his powers back.” A cold smile crossed her lips. “Except you didn’t have any kind of contingency plan in place, so now you’re running in circles and trying to figure out what to do.”

She finally dropped her feet from the table and leaned forward. “Let me tell you something, though. There’s _nothing_ you can do. Because he’s free. He’s loose. And he’s anything but pleased.”

And that was the moment where Fury realized that this woman wasn’t just Loki’s lover, she was his _ally_. Which made her far more dangerous than they’d originally thought.

“What keeps you from telling us where he is?” Fury asked.

“Aside from the fact that I don’t know where he is?” July looked at Fury as though he were exceedingly stupid. “What reason do I have to turn him over?”

“Loyalty to the human race,” Fury replied.

“I have none,” July replied. “I often wonder if we might not have been better off had Loki ruled.”

Well, didn’t that just complicate things? Fury looked at her for a moment. “In that case, Miss Harrison, I’m afraid you’ll be our guest for a little while longer. Just until you decide to talk.”

“Then it looks like I’ll be here awhile.”


	4. Chapter 4

Fury was less than pleased, something that was evident to both Clint and Natasha as soon as they walked into his office. “I take it your conversation with July didn’t go very well?” Natasha asked, even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.

“Things are worse than we first thought,” Fury replied. “She’s refusing to help us find Loki, which means we need to find a way to convince her.”

“There’s always torture.” Natasha’s voice was dead-pan; it wasn’t readily obvious whether or not she actually meant the words.

“I’d prefer a less rights-violating method,” Fury said -- not that he wasn’t already half violating July’s rights by keeping her in holding, anyway, but _that_ was for the good of the planet.

“In that case…” Natasha frowned for a moment. “We could bring her brother in, get him to talk to her. They’re not on speaking terms at the moment, but I still think Miles is our best shot.” The best part was that they wouldn’t even have to tell him much that hadn’t already been in the news reports after the Chitauri invasion.

“Go talk to him, then,” Fury ordered. “Bring him in. Use whatever means necessary to convince him.”

Natasha allowed herself a small smile. “In that case, sir, we might want to send Agent Barton.”

“Oh?” Fury arched an eyebrow.

“Clint’s more his type than I am.” Plus she’d run into Miles at the coffee shop a time or two. She knew how to judge a man’s interest and there’d been none whatsoever in her.

“In that case…” Fury looked at Clint. “Go talk to him, Agent Barton.”

Clint groaned inwardly but said nothing.

 

Miles was grateful for a day off. For one thing, he’d spent most of the day hung over. For another, his nose still ached frequently and being at home meant it was easier to duck away and pop something for the pain.

His nose had healed well enough, though, something he was grateful for.

What he wasn’t so grateful for was Loki’s sudden disappearance three weeks earlier. While he would never like the man, would never trust him, and would quite happily beat the fucking shit out of him if the opportunity arose, July was in love with the shifty little bastard, and the one time he’d seen her since their falling out -- at the coffee shop almost two weeks previous -- she’d seemed devastated, like a shadow of herself. He hated seeing her like that, even as much as he half thought he hated her for siding with Loki. Family was complicated.

He was sprawled on the couch when the knock at the door came. Grumbling under his breath, Miles stood and went to answer it. “Can I help you?” He gave Clint a frank appraisal; he couldn’t help it. He tended to eye people at least once if he found them attractive. It wasn’t necessarily personal.

Clint had met the man once or twice, running into him at the coffee shop, but he’d never spoken with him beyond a murmured greeting in passing. “Mr. Jessen -- “

“Please, call me Miles,” he said, stepping back to let Clint in.

“Miles, then,” Clint said with a slight nod as he walked inside. “I work for SHIELD. I’ll spare you what it stands for, suffice it to say we’re in the homeland security business.”

Thanks to the news reports six months ago, Miles had at least heard of SHIELD. “What is SHIELD doing on my doorstep, then?” he asked.

“It’s… complicated,” Clint said, inwardly cursing Fury for making him be the one to do this. “It’s about your sister, in a way.”

“July?” Miles frowned. “What could she possibly have done that’s a threat to national security?”

“Hooked up with the guy behind the alien invasion six months ago, for one thing,” Clint said. “Refuse to tell us where he is, for another thing.”

Miles facepalmed. “Oh, God.” He’d known Loki was trouble, but _that_ kind of trouble? “And here I thought all the bastard needed was a nice set of assault charges filed against him.”

Clint arched an eyebrow. “Do I want to know?”

“Loki assaulted me in my living room,” Miles explained. “Pretty much just because I made my sister cry with my frank assessment of her relationship with the man.”

“I know you and your sister aren’t on terribly good terms right now, but… we need you to come speak with her,” Clint said. “We need someone to convince her that it’s in her best interests to give up Loki’s whereabouts. She says she doesn’t know where he is, but we think she has at least some clue and she won’t tell us.”

Miles sighed. “She’s in love with him,” he said. “She’ll never give Loki up. She sided with him over me despite knowing that he beat the shit out of me and broke my nose. She won’t let a little thing like a government agency pushing her make her tell the truth.” He shrugged. “But I’ll give it a try. Worst thing happens, I’ll get absolutely nowhere with her and we’ll never speak to each other for the rest of our lives.” Not that they weren’t close to that already.

“Let’s go, then.”

 

July couldn’t believe she’d been put in a damn holding cell. There was no reason for it. Never mind that she wasn’t telling them what they wanted to know -- and she couldn’t, because she legitimately _didn’t_ know it -- there was still no need to treat her like a criminal.

She heard footsteps coming down the hall and she glanced up. She jumped to her feet from the bench she’d been sitting on. “ _Miles_?” She looked at him in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

The agent who’d escorted Miles let him into her cell and moved to stand a ways down the hall.

“Jules, you have to talk to them,” he said. “You have to tell them what you know. They’ll keep you indefinitely if you don’t.”

“They wouldn’t dare,” July said, smugly confident.

“I think they would,” Miles said, moving closer to her. “Because in their eyes, you’ve gone from helpless victim to surprising ally. You support Loki, therefore they don’t seem to care right now about legalities.”

“So why are you here, then?” she asked. “I can’t imagine SHIELD is letting me have a visit from my esteemed older brother out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“They asked me to come speak with you,” Miles said. “They’re convinced you know where Loki is and simply aren’t telling.”

“Well, then they’re pretty damn stupid,” July said, pacing her cell and somehow staying out of her brother’s reach. “Because I’ve told them repeatedly that I don’t know where Loki is.

“But you wouldn’t tell them even if you _did_ know, would you?” Miles asked.

“No, I wouldn’t,” July said.

“Why the hell not?” Miles demanded, even though he knew the answer.

“Because he means more to me than anything.”

“Even your life? Even me?” Again, he thought he knew the answer.

“Yes and yes,” she replied. “Face it, Miles, we’re just too different now to ever get along again.”

“That’s understating it,” Miles said bitterly. “You’re allied with a man who tried to destroy the planet.”

“He wasn’t trying to destroy anything,” July said sharply. “He was trying to take over. There’s a difference.”

“And how do you know that, anyway?” Miles asked suspiciously. “It’s not like it was in the news.”

“Reasonable extrapolation of the facts,” July said. “It just never seemed right that an alien invasion _wouldn’t_ be about someone taking over.”

Miles looked at her. “Plus he’s told you as much, hasn’t he?”

“He has, yeah,” July said. “He confides in me. Oh, I know he doesn’t tell me everything. I’m not so foolish as to think that he does. But he’s told me a great deal.”

“How can you live with yourself, Jules?” Miles asked. “How can you live with the fact that you’re in love with a man who would put us all under his thumb? Including you, you know.”

“Not according to what he’s said to me,” July said loftily. “If he’d succeeded in taking over and if he’d known me, he would have made me his queen.”

Miles looked at the woman that he no longer knew, that once he’d known like a best friend. “You’re insane,” he said finally. “You’ve completely and utterly lost it, that’s the only explanation.” Either that or she was an undiagnosed sociopath. Or something else he didn’t want to think about. But for now he’d go with insane.

“When I get out of here, Miles, you will pay for that. With more than just a broken nose.” July hadn’t wanted to threaten violence, but she couldn’t help it. And really, it wasn’t a threat. It was a promise. There was a difference.

“I’m not scared of Loki,” Miles said, moving towards the cell’s door. “I wasn’t scared of him the last time, and I”m not scared of him now.”

“You should be,” was all July said, giving her brother an even look.

Miles walked out of the cell before he could do something stupid like slap his sister. He had a feeling that if he’d gotten assaulted for making her cry, actually hitting her would get him killed.

He wondered what kind of retaliation hitting Loki would earn him. Whatever it was, he was pretty sure his sister would deliver it with swift and blinding anger. She’d never been one to hold back.

He had a feeling it might be worth it anyway, though. He would dearly love to hit Loki a few times, get a little payback for his nose. But he also wanted to let loose on Loki for pulling July into a world she didn’t belong in. His sister was better than that, he knew.

But his sister was happy with that life, which posed a problem. Fortunately, he thought as he walked down the hall, it wasn’t _his_ problem to solve. No, that problem belonged to SHIELD and SHIELD alone. He was walking away and everything else be damned.

They could deal with his sister on their own.


	5. Chapter 5

It was Natasha who caught up with Miles. “How did it go?” she asked.

“My sister’s a goddamn sociopath,” Miles said. “She has complete faith and trust in Loki and what he did, what he believes.”

Natasha sighed. “So she refused to tell you where he is?”

“I honestly think she legitimately doesn’t know,” Miles said. “If she knew, she’d be flaunting that knowledge in front of me, at the very least.”

Natasha cocked her head thoughtfully. “She’s taking on aspects of his personality, isn’t she?” It was a question more to herself than anything.

Despite that, Miles answered. “I can’t speak to that. I don’t know what he’s actually like, but… she’s always been cold and arrogant and more than a little bitchy. So if that’s what you’re thinking of, she’s always been that way.”

Natasha wasn’t sure she liked that, or what it might mean for them. “I’m thinking, then, that these two need to be kept separated. Letting them reunite…” She trailed off, shaking her head. “You should probably head home, Miles. We’ll call you when we need you.”

Miles wasn’t going to complain; he didn’t much care if they kept his sister for the rest of her life or not.

But even so…

He couldn’t help but ask, “Does this mean you’re going to keep her in holding?”

“It’s a possibility,” Natasha said noncommittally.

Miles could live with that.

 

Loki knew something was up, just knew it. July still wasn’t home and that had to mean something. What it meant, he didn’t know, but it had to mean _something_. And he was damn well going to figure it out.

It took him only a moment of thinking before he was pulling a small stone from his pocket and placing it on July’s coffee table. He knelt on the floor, taking a deep breath before reaching out to rest one hand on the stone. It wasn’t the perfect tool, but it was what he’d been able to scrounge up. Since his fall from the Bifrost, his mind had been more on taking over and less on his magical side. But it was that side that would allow him now to hopefully find July.

He’d found it in the corner of some godforsaken little realm that few from his race -- or the race he’d so long believed himself a part of -- knew how to access. It would, if it still worked, allow him to track an individual with whom he had an intense bond. He wasn’t sure entirely how it worked, but he’d been given some long-winded story about how it was apparently used in marriage rituals to signify two people being united as one and really, he’d zoned out after he’d learned of its precise usefulness and long before the end of that particular conversation.

Loki’s fingers flexed over the stone and it glowed a bright, reassuring yellow. He closed his eyes and concentrated, calling up an image of July in his mind. He’d been told that if he closed his eyes and concentrated, if he focused on July with every fiber of his being, he would be able to sense where she was. He didn’t actually believe it, but something didn’t feel right, so he’d been willing to risk it.

And there she was in his mind, all sharp and snark and delightful darkness, the perfect complement to his own inner demons. They were made for the cold darkness of Jotunheim, he and his lady fair, not the shining brightness of Asgard and _certainly_ not the sheer drudgery of Midgard.

His concentration sharpened as another image came into his mind, this one of July sitting at a conference table, opposite someone. His lips curved into a sneer as he recognized Coulson.

That was all he needed to tell him where July was.

SHIELD wouldn’t know what hit them.

 

July paced her holding cell like a restless jungle cat -- a restless, _pissed off_ jungle cat. She wanted out, though she knew that wasn’t going to happen any time soon. SHIELD didn’t trust her, which put her on their list of enemies, which apparently meant that they could do whatever the hell they wanted to her.

She was less than amused.

She was also wondering if it was at all possible to break out. She figured as much not, given that the cell door was quite firmly shut and locked. Which meant that, unless they let her go -- which was seeming highly unlikely -- she was stuck there.

Which meant her only hope of escape was if Loki came to rescue her.

Which in turn meant it was just a matter of time.

Her pacing slowed, though it didn’t stop. She was still thinking, trying to come up with any other way out -- she wasn’t going to sit back and simply count on Loki to come to her rescue. She was reasonably sure he wouldn’t appreciate that. Plus it was hardly the fierce independence he’d come to know and expect from her.

July was less than kindly inclined towards SHIELD and all things associated with them at the moment; as she finally, reluctantly dropped down onto the sorry excuse for a bed, all she wanted to do was paint the walls red with the blood of anybody and everybody she could get her hands on. She had the feeling Loki would appreciate the sentiment.

When he arrived, she would be properly grateful.


	6. Chapter 6

Fury was also less than amused, though quite likely for different reasons. His morning had started out normally enough, and now he had Loki’s equally crazy girlfriend sitting in one of the SHIELD holding cells. These things only happened to him, he swore. Only to him.

He had no idea what they would do with her, knew they needed to figure it out -- and soon. They couldn’t keep her in holding forever, simply because they weren’t equipped for it. But for the moment, until they came up with something better, it would work.

There were facilities that she could be shipped off to, he knew, but that would take time. Time that they might not have. Because once Loki found out that they had his girlfriend -- and face it, Fury was reasonably sure that Loki would find out; he wasn’t a stupid man, after all -- there was no telling what might happen.

This explained the heightened security level Fury had quietly had the facility placed on; it also explained the uniform look of concern on every agent’s face. Those that had clearance to know what was going on were quietly panicked but pushing that aside to do their utmost best. Those that didn’t have the clearance were… well, slightly less quietly panicked -- but only slightly. There were quiet whispers, Fury knew, but he wasn’t going to argue with quiet whispers as long as his agents did their damn jobs.

He strode down the hallway towards July’s cell; perhaps one final attempt at convincing would work.

July looked up at the sound of footsteps. “Not interested,” she said when she saw Fury standing there.

“Don’t care what you are or aren’t interested in,” Fury replied. “You need to know that there is no possible scenario in which this ends well for you.”

“Oh, there’s a scenario,” July said, disinterest lacing her voice. “If Loki comes for me, he’ll get me out of here and you and your people will pay for this -- and pay hard.”

“That’s if he comes,” Fury said. “If you mean as much as you think you do to him.”

“There’s always that possibility,” July allowed. “But do you really want to chance that?”

They both knew the answer.

 

Loki moved in a quiet fury and with a swirl of magic around him. He got as far as the front door before allowing himself to become visible. A wave of his hand sent the guards at the door flying backwards. He had no need to kill them, so he’d settle for incapacitating them -- and anybody else he came across. Contrary to belief, he didn’t kill unless he had to. Admittedly, he generally enjoyed it, but it wasn’t his chief source of entertainment in life.

He must have missed one particularly intrepid guard, though, because an alarm went off almost instantly. He didn’t care, though -- alarms going off were hardly a deterrent to him in the state he was in.

He was going to show SHIELD that Loki Laufeyson was _not_ someone to trifle with. His last showing had been on a grand scale, had been about conquering the world. This was personal, on an entirely different level.

Loki cloaked himself in magic again, disappearing effortlessly and striding down the hallway; he didn’t know where he was going, but it would be an easy matter to find out what he needed. He grabbed the first person he came across, slamming them up against the wall. “I need to know where the holding cells are,” he said, his voice quiet menace and the promise that a lie would bring pain.

“I don’t -- I’m just -- “ the agent stammered. “I can’t take you there, I don’t have clearance.”

“But do you know where they are?” Loki asked as though speaking to an exceptionally stupid child.

The agent nodded, relief flashing across his face.

“Then tell me.”

The directions were quickly and concisely delivered, even in the face of sheer terror, something Loki approved of. As a reward, Loki left the man alive and instead thunked his head rather soundly against the wall behind them. He pulled away, letting the now unconscious agent slide down the wall. It wouldn’t take him long to reach the containment area, and then everything would truly begin.

He strode down the hall, taking turn after turn and simply brushing aside anybody he came across. He didn’t need to kill to get his point across, and his point was to stay the hell out of his way.

Loki reached the containment area and stopped in his tracks. This was almost too easy, entirely too easy. An alarm and a good handful or two of agents? That was it against the Asgardian god of mischief?

Disappointing, really. He’d hoped for a bit more.

 

July sat on the uncomfortable cot -- she was pretty sure it was secretly a medieval torture device of an entirely unpleasant variety -- with her eyes closed, listening intently for… well, she wasn’t sure what. Any sign that things were happening, because really, this waiting bullshit was getting on her nerves.

She knew Loki would come for her, there was no doubt in her mind, but she was hoping it would be sooner rather than later. Much longer and she’d start singing off-color drinking songs to try and get a rise out of the guards out in the hall.

“Hey, genius brigade, you still alive out there?” she called, still not opening her eyes. “I’m getting kind of bored in here.”

“Then perhaps we should do something to rectify that,” came a familiar cold voice.

“About damn time,” July said, opening her eyes and glancing over. “Now, how about getting me out of here so I can beat some people’s heads in?”

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” Loki said, quirking a smile; with an almost absent-minded flick of his fingers, July’s cell door came open.

“Yeah, well, I don’t take kindly to being locked up, thanks,” she said as she stood. “And I’m even less kindly inclined towards SHIELD because, well, I don’t really need to explain, do I?”

“No, I suppose you don’t.” Loki held a hand out. “Shall we go?”

“Oh, hell yes,” July replied, crossing the room; she put her hand in Loki’s and smiled. “Somehow, though, I doubt getting out will be nearly as easy as getting in.”

“I’m actually rather hoping it’s not,” Loki replied. “That would be absolutely dreadfully boring.”

“Do we get to make them pay?” July asked as they walked out of the cell and down the hall.

“A little,” Loki said, quirking a smile. “Because what would an escape be without payback?”

“Oh, good,” July said in relief. “I can live with that, then.”

Not that she really had a choice, but even so. It was always nice when she got her way.

They walked past what was apparently a currently-unoccupied construction project; on a whim, July snatched up a length of metal pipe. At Loki’s curious glance, she just smiled faintly and said, “You never know when you’re going to need to knock some sense into someone.”

Loki chuckled. “I like the way you think, my love. I like the way you think.”

 

Fury was in the middle of a phone call when everything went to hell. He hung up without so much as an explanation. The alarms going off told him something was wrong better than Maria Hill’s bursting into his office ever could’ve.

“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“There’s a break-in in one of the cells,” Hill replied. “Or rather, a break-out.”

Fury didn’t need to be told anything more. “Loki’s here, then,” he said grimly. “He came for her.”

Hill just nodded. “So now we need to focus on containment.”

“I’m not entirely sure we’ll be able to contain either of them,” Fury said grimly as he rose from his chair. “We may have to settle for taking him out entirely.”

“I’ll issue the order,” Hill said crisply as she turned to leave the office.

Fury stifled a groan. This day was going to end with a massacre, either way. If they couldn’t take out Loki, then Loki would likely take _them_ out instead.

They’d just have to get to him first.

 

Loki stalked down the hall, July close at his side. He could have simply made them disappear, but they both had vengeance to seek and he would hardly deprive July of a chance to take what small measure of revenge she could against the people who had held her captive. Not when he would take his own pleasure in seeing SHIELD taken down.

And then, almost as the universe were rewarding them, they turned a corner and came face to face with a face from Loki’s past. A face neither of them was particularly happy with at the moment.

“Agent Coulson, hello,” Loki said, his voice a silky drawl. “I was wondering when we’d run into you.”

“Back down, Loki,” Coulson said levelly, raising his weapon. “If you’re smart, you’ll back down and let us take you both into custody.”

“Oh, hell no,” July replied, shifting the pipe in her hand. “You’ve managed to simultaneously insult his intelligence _and_ piss me off at the same time.”

Loki smirked. “You should realize something, Agent Coulson. Actually, you should have already realized it. As should Director Fury. I have quite the fierce protector in July here. She doesn’t take very kindly towards any sort of insult to me, whether actual or just implied.”

“She has decidedly poor taste in men,” Coulson said, even as his weapon shifted slightly, resting on July now.

Loki’s eyes narrowed. “Talking back, Agent Coulson? Not the wisest of moves, considering what I’ve done to you in the past.”

“I know, you killed me.” Coulson’s voice was dry, unamused. “And I’m sure you’d do it again. But just remember something, Loki. Look where my gun’s pointed. You kill me right now, your girlfriend’s going down with me.”

In one smooth move, July strode forward, swinging the length of pipe one-handed and putting a considerable amount of anger-fueled force into it. It made contact with Coulson’s head and he went down instantly, gun clattering to the floor as his body went limp.

Loki looked at July with something like approval on his face. “You continue to surprise me.”

“What can I say?” July shrugged and dropped the pipe with a thunk. “Only girl in the family, spent a lot of time playing with Miles and his friends, could hit a baseball better than half of them.”

“At least your brother proved useful for _something_ ,” Loki said. “All the same, I think it best if we continue making our exit now. We’ll no doubt have to fight our way out further.”

“In which case…” July reached down, picking up the pipe. “I might need this again, after all.”

“A bit of protection never hurts,” Loki agreed. And really, July needed every bit she could get -- his magic could only do so much to defend her, after all, and she needed the ability to defend herself. He knew she was fully capable of it, but she needed an actual instrument to use.

And she had one. It was simple and inelegant, but she’d already proven herself with it.

It would do.


	7. Chapter 7

It wasn’t long before SHIELD headquarters was A: on lockdown and B: buzzing with activity in the form of a manhunt utilizing nearly every agent in the building.

Not that this kept Loki and July from working their way through the building and taking out more than a good handful of those agents. July’s pipe got its fair share of use, though nothing so brutal as smacking Coulson square in the head.

“I’m one crackling radio away from being in Silent Hill,” July muttered, glancing at the length of metal in her hand and noticing that she’d gotten blood on it at some point along the way. Not surprising, really, but she hadn’t exactly been paying attention. She was too focused on getting the hell out of there.

“Do I even want to know what you mean by that?” Loki asked, moving quickly around a corner.

“Probably not,” July said. “And just a question. Why are we fighting our way out of here? Can’t you just magic us out of here?”

“It’s not so easy as that,” Loki said. “Too many people around, not in the mood to get observed. Besides, they deserve a little payback for what they put you through.”

“Not that I’m objecting to a little violence, but they didn’t do _that_ much to me,” July said, following close behind him.

“They put you in holding,” Loki said. “That’s enough.”

July wasn’t going to argue. She knew better than to argue with him when he was like this. She was possibly crazy herself, but she wasn’t _stupid_.

“Besides, there’s some kind of poetry to walking out the front doors of SHIELD headquarters and _then_ disappearing,” Loki pointed out, with a logic that only made sense in his head -- and in July’s as well.

“I can’t argue that,” July said, glancing back behind them. “We seem to have hit a lull in the fighting. I can’t believe we’ve taken out every single agent in the building. They’re organizing somewhere between here and the entrances. It’s about to get a whole lot more complicated.”

“I can do complicated,” Loki said, a grin spreading slowly across his face. “Mischief requires complication, after all.”

July shifted her pipe to the other hand and flexed her fingers -- her grip had been tight enough that her hand was starting to hurt. But she could push the achy pain away long enough to focus on the matter at hand. She didn’t have a choice. It could be the difference between survival and being captured. And if she were put in a cell this time, things wouldn’t go nearly so well as before.

Sure enough, they ran into more than a few more handfuls of agents, but they managed to take them down between the two of them until finally -- finally -- they were in the final hallway before the front exit.

July was tired and achy and sweaty and had a _bad_ feeling it was _still_ entirely too easy.

She was proved right when Fury stepped out from a doorway. “Oh, just who we wanted to see,” she muttered.

“You’ve done a great deal of harm to a good number of my agents,” Fury said. “I can’t let you get away with that.”

“Speaking of injured agents, might want to find Coulson -- if you haven’t already -- and make sure he doesn’t have a concussion or brain damage or something,” July said almost conversationally. “I whacked him a good one with this.” She lifted the pipe slightly for emphasis.

Fury lifted the gun he’d been smart enough to bring with him -- because he wasn’t stupid enough to face either of these two unarmed, though Loki was by far the greater threat -- and aimed it. At July.

“Oh, good grief, not _this_ again,” Loki said, even as he smoothly slid in front of July. “The last person who tried that might have bleeding on the brain as we speak.”

Fury frowned inwardly. Loki putting himself between July and a bullet spoke to just how much the woman truly mattered to him, and that was hardly a good thing. The more she mattered, the more Loki would do to protect her. And the more he would do to protect her, the more danger everyone was in.

Before Fury could do anything, he found himself flying backwards. He fired off two shots as he flew, though, one of which went flying wildly off-base while the other one grazed Loki’s cheek.

Loki let out a startled, indignant yelp of pain even as he threw an arm out to the side to keep July from throwing herself and her pipe in Fury’s direction. “Let it go, July,” he said, his voice cold.

“But he -- “

“I _said_ , let it go.” Loki’s smile spread across his face, though it was as cold as his voice. “He will pay, one of these days, and for greater things than shooting at either of us.”

“He hurt you.” July sounded just this side of pouty about it.

“And once we’re gone, you get to kiss it and make it all better.”

“I would have prefered to beat the ever-living shit out of him,” July said begrudgingly. “But I suppose I can live with that.”

Loki looked at back at July, giving her a faint ghost of a smile, before turning back to where Fury lay stunned on the floor, breathing but not in any particular hurry to move. Slowly, deliberately, Loki stepped closer and closer still until he stood over the fallen man.

Fury looked up at him. “Am I going to die?” he asked. “Because if I am, really, get on with it.”

“Not today, Director Fury,” Loki said, lifting a hand slightly. “Not today.” A burst of energy came from his hand, hitting the good Director squarely in the chest. Fury seized once, then stilled.

Loki smiled, stepped over his body, and trusted July to follow. “Not today.”

 

The cleanup of the situation was, in Maria Hill’s tired and admittedly really pissed off professional opinion, a complete disaster. What _could_ anything be when the Director was unconscious and in medical care?

Oh, and then there was Coulson, damn Phil Coulson, who -- despite a very definite concussion and the worry of brain injury -- was trying to insist on doing his job. Not that his insistences were getting him very far. He’d made it out of the infirmary bed before collapsing, and along with the med staff, Hill had been there with a hearty “I thought I _told_ you to stay put, Agent Coulson. Next time I’ll let you lay on the floor. Your ass will get awfully chilly in that hospital gown.”

Coulson’s response was a bleary-eyed grin and the quip of, “Why, Maria, I thought you liked me. Is this how you treat your friends?”

“Yes, actually,” was Hill’s response.

“Oh. In that case, I’m going to pass out again, if you don’t mind.” He was unconscious before she could actually respond, not that she would have responded in the negative. At the moment, she preferred Coulson unconscious. He was less difficult that way.

They’d lost the prisoner and hadn’t even managed to capture Loki, which would have made up for it given that there’d been no _real_ interest in July Harrison, save for her support of Loki in the first place. Hill still thought that made her insane and a threat, yes, but not the immediate one.

She stayed at Coulson’s bedside a moment longer, watching him, before briskly crossing the room to stand at Fury’s bedside. She hoped he wasn’t going to be unconscious much longer, that whatever had knocked him out hadn’t left any serious lasting damage.

They were really going to need him.


End file.
